scholarly journals Low optical polarization at the core of the optically thin jet of M87

2020 ◽  
Vol 496 (2) ◽  
pp. 2204-2212
Author(s):  
A Y Fresco ◽  
J A Fernández-Ontiveros ◽  
M A Prieto ◽  
J A Acosta-Pulido ◽  
A Merloni
Keyword(s):  
Circular Polarization ◽  
Linear Polarization ◽  
Position Angle ◽  
Field Configuration ◽  
Stokes Parameters ◽  
No Emission ◽  
The Core ◽  
Level Of Activity ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Disordered Magnetic

ABSTRACT We study the optical linear and circular polarization in the optically thin regime of the core and jet of M87. Observations were acquired two days before the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) campaign in early 2017 April. A high degree (∼20 per cent) of linear polarization (Plin) is detected in the bright jet knots resolved at $\sim 10\,\mathrm{ to}\,23\, \rm {arcsec}$ ($0.8{-}1.8\, \rm {kpc}$) from the centre, whereas the nucleus and inner jet show Plin ≲ 5 per cent. The position angle of the linear polarization shifts by ∼90° from each knot to the adjacent ones, with the core angle perpendicular to the first knot. The nucleus was in a low level of activity (Plin ∼ 2–3 per cent), and no emission was detected from HST-1. No circular polarization was detected either in the nucleus or the jet above a 3 σ level of Pcirc ≤ 1.5 per cent, discarding the conversion of Plin into Pcirc. A disordered magnetic field configuration or a mix of unresolved knots polarized along axes with different orientations could explain the low Plin. The latter implies a smaller size of the core knots, in line with current interferometric observations. Polarimetry with EHT can probe this scenario in the future. A steep increase of both Plin and Pcirc with increasing frequency is expected for the optically thin domain, above the turnover point. This work describes the methodology to recover the four Stokes parameters using a λ/4 waveplate polarimeter.

Elliptically Polarized Natural Modes in Pulsar Magnetospheres

1982 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 365-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle C. Allen ◽  
D.B. Melrose
Keyword(s):  
Circular Polarization ◽  
Linear Polarization ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Position Angle ◽  
Average Degree ◽  
Pole Model ◽  
Magnetic Pole ◽  
Pulse Profile ◽  
Linearly Polarized ◽  
High Degree

The most obvious feature of the polarization of the radio emission from most pulsars is the rotation of the plane of linear polarization across pulses. The original interpretation of this in terms of the magnetic pole model (Radhakrishnan 1969, Radhakrishnan et al. 1969, Radhakrishnan and Cooke 1969) accounts for the variation of position angle extremely well for some pulsars (e.g. Manchester and Taylor 1977, Manchester 1978). Conversely, this provides strong support for the magnetic pole model for pulsar emission. It also suggests that the emission is basically linearly polarized as implied by virtually all proposed emission mechanisms, e.g. the reviews by Ginzburg and Zheleznyakov (1975) and Arons (1979). However, there are two features of the polarization which require a separate explanation. First, some pulsars have a moderately high degree of circular polarization, even in the integrated pulse profile (Manchester 1971, Lyne, Smith and Graham 1971). In some pulsars the average degree of circular polarization can exceed the average degree of linear polarization, e.g. in PSR 0835-41 and 0959-54 (McCulloch et al. 1978). Second, some pulsars exhibit the phenomenon of transitions between orthogonal elliptical polarizations (Manchester, Taylor and Huguenin 1975, Backer, Rankin and Campbell 1976, Cordes and Hankins 1977, Cordes, Rankin and Backer 1978). In many pulsars the orthogonal polarizations have substantial circular components, e.g. in PSR 1133 + 16 (Manchester et al. 1975) and PSR 2020 + 28 (Cordes et al. 1978).

scholarly journals Simultaneous Five Color (UBVRI) Polarimetry of VV Puppis

1987 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 203-203
Author(s):  
V. Piirola ◽  
A. Reiz ◽  
G.V. Coyne
Keyword(s):  
Circular Polarization ◽  
Linear Polarization ◽  
Wavelength Dependence ◽  
Position Angle ◽  
Orbital Inclination ◽  
V Band ◽  
Highly Active ◽  
Phase Interval ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Bright Phase

AbstractObservations of linear and circular polarization in five colour bands during a highly active state of VV Puppis in January 86 are reported. A strong linear polarization pulse with the maximum in the blue, PB ≈ 22%, is observed at the end of the bright phase when the active pole is at the limb and a weaker secondary pulse, PB ≈ 7%, is seen in the beginning of the bright phase, when the active pole reappears. Strong positive circular polarization is also observed in the blue and the ultraviolet, РU ≈ PB ≈ 18%, PV ≈ 10% during the bright phase. The circular polarization reverses the sign in the B and V bands during the faint phase and a negative polarization hump is seen when the active pole crosses the limb. The circular polarization in the V band reaches the value PV ≈ −10% at the hump, after which it remains near PV ≈ −5% during the faint phase. This is probably due to radiation coming from the second, less active pole and accretion thus takes place onto both poles. The wavelength dependences of the positive and negative parts of the circular polarization curve are different and no polarization reversal is seen in the U band. The position angle of the linear polarization is well determined during a large portion of the cycle, especially in the V band, thanks to the activity from both poles. A best fit to the position angle curve, taking into account also the duration of the positive circular polarization phase interval ΔΦ = 0.40 (in the V band), yields the values of orbital inclination i = 78° ± 2° and the colatitude of the active magnetic pole ß = 146° ± 2°. The relatively good fit to the position angle data indicates that the simple dipole model is nearly correct in the case of VV Puppis. Some wavelength dependence is, however, seen in the position angle curves, especially in the I band where the slope Δθ/ΔΦ at the main pulse is considerably smaller than in the other bands. The shape of the position angle curves changes also in the blue and the ultraviolet around the middle of the bright phase. This is probably due to optical thickness effects as the side of the accretion column which is toward the observer changes near this phase.

scholarly journals Interstellar Circular Polarization and the Composition of Interstellar Dust

1973 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 161-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. G. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Circular Polarization ◽  
Linear Polarization ◽  
Interstellar Dust ◽  
Principal Axis ◽  
Complex Refractive Index ◽  
Polarized Light ◽  
Position Angle ◽  
Optical Observations ◽  
Small Component ◽  
Linearly Polarized

This paper shows that optical observations of circular polarization produced by aligned interstellar grains could yield valuable information about the grain material. The interstellar medium is known to be linearly dichroic from observations of interstellar linear polarization; many different grain models using a large variety of compositions can be found to reproduce these observations. Since the same aligned grains make the medium linearly birefringent, a small component of circular polarization can result from incident linearly polarized light if the position angle of the linear polarization does not coincide with either principal axis of the medium. Here calculations are presented to demonstrate that the wavelength of the circular polarization is sensitive to the imaginary part of the complex refractive index of the grain material. This provides an opportunity of investigating whether the grains are characteristically dielectric or metallic. Some possible observations are suggested.

scholarly journals Polarization in Pulsar Radio Emission

1992 ◽  
Vol 128 ◽  
pp. 384-386
Author(s):  
D. M. GOULD
Keyword(s):  
Radio Emission ◽  
Circular Polarization ◽  
Linear Polarization ◽  
Large Data ◽  
Position Angle ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Pulsar Radio ◽  
Polarization Profiles ◽  
Pulsar Radio Emission

Polarimetric observations of over 300 pulsars have been carried out between 21 December 1988 and 22 January 1990 at 606, 610, 925, and 1408 MHz using the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank. Many of these pulsars have no previously published polarization profiles and will be published shortly (Gould and Lyne 1990). This large data set along with previously published data from various sources, has been used to test the correlation found by Radhakrishnan and Rankin (1990) between sense reversing circular polarization signatures and the accompanying sense of rotation of the linear polarization position angle.

scholarly journals Polarization Variability of Some Compact Radio Sources

1982 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 331-333
Author(s):  
M. M. Komesaroff ◽  
D. K. Milne ◽  
P. T. Rayner ◽  
J. A. Roberts ◽  
D. J. Cooke
Keyword(s):  
Circular Polarization ◽  
Linear Polarization ◽  
Position Angle ◽  
Linear Increase ◽  
Monitoring Programme ◽  
Radio Sources ◽  
List Type ◽  
Type Number ◽  
5 Ghz ◽  
Superluminal Expansion

Figure 1 shows observations for four sample sources from the Parkes 5 GHz polarization monitoring programme. Interesting features illustrated include •Sudden changes of the position angle of the linear polarization by ≳ 70° in PKS 0537-441 and 1253-055 (3C279).•A linear increase in the position angle of the polarization of PKS 2134+004 through 70° over 3/12; years.•Distinct bursts of circular polarization in PKS 0430+052, 0537-441 and 1253-055. In PKS 0430+052 (3C120) such a burst coincides with the possible superluminal expansion (Walker et al., 1981). In PKS 1253-055 (3C279) a burst of circular polarization is currently occurring at a time of very low linear polarization.

scholarly journals Oilseed Rape (Brassica napus L.) Phenology Estimation by Averaged Stokes-Related Parameters

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 2652
Author(s):  
Wangfei Zhang ◽  
Yongxin Zhang ◽  
Yue Yang ◽  
Erxue Chen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Tree ◽  
Circular Polarization ◽  
Oilseed Rape ◽  
Linear Polarization ◽  
Orientation Angle ◽  
Stokes Parameters ◽  
Growth Stages ◽  
Phenological Stage ◽  
Polarization Ratio ◽  
Crop Phenology

Accurate and timely knowledge of crop phenology assists in planning and/or triggering appropriate farming activities. The multiple Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) technique shows great potential in crop phenology retrieval for its characterizations, such as short revisit time, all-weather monitoring and sensitivity to vegetation structure. This study aims to explore the potential of averaged Stokes-related parameters derived from multiple PolSAR data in oilseed rape phenology identification. In this study, the averaged Stokes-related parameters were first computed by two different wave polarimetric states. Then, the two groups of averaged Stokes-related parameters were generated and applied for analyzing averaged Stokes-related parameter sensitivity to oilseed rape phenology changes. At last, decision tree (DT) algorithms trained using 60% of the data were used for oilseed rape phenological stage classification. Four Stokes parameters (g0, g1, g2 and g3) and eight sub parameters (degree of polarization m, entropy H, ellipticity angle χ, orientation angle φ, degree of linear polarization Dolp, degree of circular polarization Docp, linear polarization ratio Lpr and circular polarization ratio Cpr) were extracted from a multi-temporal RADARSAT-2 dataset acquired during the whole oilseed rape growth cycle in 2013. Their sensitivities to oilseed rape phenology were analyzed versus five main rape phenology stages. In two groups (two different wave polarimetric states) of this study, g0, g1, g2, g3, m, H, Dolp and Lpr showed high sensitivity to oilseed rape growth stages while χ, φ, Docp and Cpr showed good performance for phenology classification in previous studies, which were quite noisy during the whole oilseed rape growth circle and showed unobvious sensitivity to the crop’s phenology change. The DT algorithms performed well in oilseed rape phenological stage identification. The results were verified at the parcel level with left 40% of the point dataset. Five phenology intervals of oilseed rape were identified with no more than three parameters by simple but robust decision tree algorithm groups. The identified phenology stages agree well with the ground measurements; the overall identification accuracies were 71.18% and 79.71%, respectively. For each growth stage, the best performance occurred at stage S1 with the accuracy of 95.65% for Group 1 and 94.23% for Group 2, and the worst performance occurred at stage S3 and S5 with the values around 60%. Most of the classification errors may resulted from the indistinguishability of S3 and S5 using Stokes-related parameters.

scholarly journals Postion angle jumps in pulsar linear polarization

1996 ◽  
Vol 160 ◽  
pp. 261-262
Author(s):  
R.X. Xu ◽  
G.J. Qiao ◽  
J.L. Han
Keyword(s):  
Linear Polarization ◽  
Position Angle ◽  
Pulsar Emission ◽  
The Core ◽  
Relative Retardation

AbstractThe position angle (PA) behaviour of linear polarization of pulsar emission is simulated after considering the relative retardation between the core and conal components, which are believed to be generated from different emission altitudes. The PA will jump 90° at some points where the complete depolarization occurs.

scholarly journals Strong variable linear polarization in the cool active star II Peg

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (S302) ◽  
pp. 369-372
Author(s):  
Lisa Rosén ◽  
Oleg Kochukhov ◽  
Gregg A. Wade
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Circular Polarization ◽  
Linear Polarization ◽  
Transverse Component ◽  
Doppler Imaging ◽  
Stokes Parameters ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Magnetic Imaging ◽  
Field Geometry ◽  
The Magnetic Field

AbstractMagnetic fields of cool active stars are currently studied polarimetrically using only circular polarization observations. This provides limited information about the magnetic field geometry since circular polarization is only sensitive to the line-of-sight component of the magnetic field. Reconstructions of the magnetic field topology will therefore not be completely trustworthy when only circular polarization is used. On the other hand, linear polarization is sensitive to the transverse component of the magnetic field. By including linear polarization in the reconstruction the quality of the reconstructed magnetic map is dramatically improved. For that reason, we wanted to identify cool stars for which linear polarization could be detected at a level sufficient for magnetic imaging. Four active RS CVn binaries, II Peg, HR 1099, IM Peg, and σ Gem were observed with the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Mean polarization profiles in all four Stokes parameters were derived using the multi-line technique of least-squares deconvolution (LSD). Not only was linear polarization successfully detected in all four stars in at least one observation, but also, II Peg showed an extraordinarily strong linear polarization signature throughout all observations. This qualifies II Peg as the first promising target for magnetic Doppler imaging in all four Stokes parameters and, at the same time, suggests that other such targets can possibly be identified.

scholarly journals Full-Stokes polarimetry with circularly polarized feeds

2018 ◽  
Vol 609 ◽  
pp. A68 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Myserlis ◽  
E. Angelakis ◽  
A. Kraus ◽  
C. A. Liontas ◽  
N. Marchili ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Circular Polarization ◽  
Linear Polarization ◽  
Stokes Parameters ◽  
Polarization Degree ◽  
Polarization Angle ◽  
Instrumental Effects ◽  
Circularly Polarized ◽  
Angle Measurements ◽  
Linearly Polarized ◽  
Stokes Polarimetry

We present an analysis pipeline that enables the recovery of reliable information for all four Stokes parameters with high accuracy. Its novelty relies on the effective treatment of the instrumental effects even before the computation of the Stokes parameters, contrary to conventionally used methods such as that based on the Müller matrix. For instance, instrumental linear polarization is corrected across the whole telescope beam and significant Stokes Q and U can be recovered even when the recorded signals are severely corrupted by instrumental effects. The accuracy we reach in terms of polarization degree is of the order of 0.1–0.2%. The polarization angles are determined with an accuracy of almost 1°. The presented methodology was applied to recover the linear and circular polarization of around 150 active galactic nuclei, which were monitored between July 2010 and April 2016 with the Effelsberg 100-m telescope at 4.85 GHz and 8.35 GHz with a median cadence of 1.2 months. The polarized emission of the Moon was used to calibrate the polarization angle measurements. Our analysis showed a small system-induced rotation of about 1° at both observing frequencies. Over the examined period, five sources have significant and stable linear polarization; three sources remain constantly linearly unpolarized; and a total of 11 sources have stable circular polarization degree mc, four of them with non-zero mc. We also identify eight sources that maintain a stable polarization angle. All this is provided to the community for future polarization observations reference. We finally show that our analysis method is conceptually different from those traditionally used and performs better than the Müller matrix method. Although it has been developed for a system equipped with circularly polarized feeds, it can easily be generalized to systems with linearly polarized feeds as well.

scholarly journals VLBI Observations of the Radio Jet in 3C 273

1988 ◽  
Vol 129 ◽  
pp. 27-28
Author(s):  
S. C. Unwin ◽  
R. J. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Range ◽  
Large Range ◽  
High Dynamic Range ◽  
No Emission ◽  
The Core ◽  
Vlbi Observations ◽  
High Dynamic ◽  
Quasar 3C 273

We present a new high dynamic range map of the quasar 3C 273, made from observations with a VLBI network of 12 telescopes. This new map at 18 cm wavelength has one of the highest dynamic ranges yet achieved with VLBI, and it shows the ‘jet’ extending to at least 180 milliarcsec, or 330 pc from the nucleus of the quasar. Strong limits can be placed on the brightness of any ‘counter-jet’ on kiloparsec-scales, as no emission is visible on the opposite side of the ‘core’. Combining with other VLBI, VLA and MERLIN maps shows that the jet is visible and continuous over a very large range of scales, from 1 pc to 40 kpc.

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